Proposal could land Bishop Amat football in Catholic South League

This month’s arbitration ruling that sent Damien High School and St. Lucy’s back to the Mt. SAC area for league groupings and returned Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure to the northern area forced several schools and leagues to come up with new proposals.

The CIF-Southern Section had hoped to group Damien, St. Lucy’s, Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure in parochial leagues, but the four private schools won their arbitration case against CIF to avoid it. The Mt. SAC area and Catholic Athletic Association voted last year on new league proposals, but the recent ruling forced several league plans to be re-worked or voted on again.

The Catholic Athletic Association (CAA) met Tuesday at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame to discuss football league proposals. According to Bishop Amat Athletic Director Michael Manzo, it came up with a proposal of a Catholic North and South League comprised of four teams each with Bishop Amat placed in the Catholic South.

The North and South would compete in the Pac-5 Division and guarantee two playoff berths in each league.

The Catholic North would include Alemany, Chaminade, Crespi and Notre Dame. The Catholic South would include Bishop Amat, Loyola, Serra and Salesian.

All schools in the North and South would play each other for a total of seven games, leaving only three nonleague games to fill. But only North and South league opponents will count as league games to determine North and South league champions and playoff berths.

Manzo said the proposal will be voted on March 27 at St. Pius-St. Matthias High in Downey.

“We wanted to create power leagues, and by all of us facing each other we think it creates a (formidable) strength of schedule that could possibly help teams in our league earn at-large berths and more playoff spots,” Manzo said.

The only team that did not take part in the proposal was Salesian. Manzo said all other representatives from schools comprised of the Catholic North and South were present to discuss the proposal and unanimously agreed on the idea.

All sports other than football in the CAA are discussing league scenarios that also will be voted on March 27.

The Mission League is expected to submit a proposal for the March 27 vote for football only that would group Cathedral, Harvard-Westlake, La Salle, St. Francis and St. Paul in the Mission League.

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With Damien and St. Lucy’s back in the Mt. SAC area, league representatives will meet Friday at Walnut High to discuss where to place both schools or if several leagues need to be re-configured. It’s expected to be an all-day session. The Mt. SAC area must submit its proposals to the CIF-Southern Section by April 7.

“There’s no reason to start this entire process over from scratch,” Mt. SAC Area re-leaguing chair Jeff Jordan said. “We worked really hard as a collective group to make necessary adjustments and changes and we haven’t started the new cycle yet.

“At this point, we have to amend some of our policies so we can effectively add the Damien-St. Lucy’s package back into the Mt. SAC area.”